One of the most appalling acts of the Hitler regime was the institutionalised mass murder of disabled people - including thousands of babies. Two "excuses" were given at the time: The first that there weren't the "resources" to help everyone (especially once war broke out, triggering in Germans the memory of the Allied blockade of WW1 and part of 1919, during which several hundred thousand German children died of starvation).
The second was that it was an act of "mercy" to end miserable and futile lives.
Everyone today condemns all that as Nazi barbarism, but the terrible truth is that modern Britain is no better. The "resources" argument is now used, sometimes openly, more often in rather coded language, to "justify" euthanasia.
And "mercy killing" is the fate of thousands of innocent babies detected before birth with Downes Syndrome.
2021, nearly 90% of all babies prenatally diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in England and the Crown Dependencies had their lives ended by abortion, according to statistics released by NHS England.
Statistics released by NHS England this morning reveal that 87.26% of all babies prenatally diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in England and the Crown Dependencies had their lives ended by abortion in 2021.
The statistics reveal that in 2021, out of 1,115 babies prenatally diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in England and the Crown Dependencies, a total of 973, or 87.26%, had their lives ended by abortion. 2020 figures show that 84.28% of babies prenatally diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in England had their lives ended by abortion. The data for 2020 does not include the Crown Dependencies.
A total of 700 babies in England and the Crown Dependencies were born with Down’s syndrome, including those diagnosed after birth.
In addition to these figures, the statistics also reveal that 108 babies with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate and 53 babies with a club foot in England and the Crown Dependencies had their lives ended by abortion..
The release of the statistics comes in the same week that Sir Liam Fox, former GP, cabinet minister and defence secretary, tabled an amendment to the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill, signed by 40 MPs, which will bring the abortion time limit for babies with Down’s syndrome in line with the time limit for babies that do not have disabilities.
The campaign group, Don’t Screen Us Out, has reacted to the publishing of the statistics by calling on MPs to urgently update legislation to ensure that babies with Down’s syndrome cannot be aborted up to birth.